Track & Field Headline

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The Gator track and
field team will play host to the 75th edition of the Florida Relays April 3-5
at Percy Beard Track on the University of Florida campus as one ofUSTFCCCA’s Division I National Meets of the Week.
Competition begins Thursday with high school competition, as the boys and girls
1,600m races kick off the weekend’s events, along with six high school field
events: boys shot put, long jump and pole vault and girls discus, long jump and
high jump.

Action continues Thursday until approximately
8:30 p.m., while college competition is added to the mix both Friday and
Saturday with elite-level competition from 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. each day.

After splitting for a successful weekend at
the Texas & Raleigh Relays, as well as the UNF Spring Break Invite March
26-29, the Florida track and field program will play host to the 2014 Pepsi
Florida Relays April 3-5 at Percy Beard Track at James G. Pressly Stadium. The
three-day meet will serve as one of UF’s two home meets in a span of two weeks,
as the Gators will host the Tom Jones Memorial Invite April 19. The Gators
walked away from the Texas Invite with a number of SEC and collegiate-leading
marks after facing four days of stiff competition in Austin, highlighted by a
new American collegiate record in the 4x100-meter relay for UF’s Antwan
Wright, Hugh Graham, Jr., Arman Hall and Dedric Dukes
(38.29). The quartet was not only the fastest American collegiate 4x1 in
history, but shattered a Florida school record in the event and ran the
second-fastest time in the world this year. Highlighting UF’s individual
performances Saturday, Wright additionally put up a special performance in the
100m dash, clocking a PR of 10.20 (+1.5) to finish fifth in finals while jumping
onto UF’s top-10 list at No. 9 in the event. In the women’s 100m, Shayla
Sanders cruised to a wind-aided 11.21 (+2.7), one-hundredth off her PR
11.20 from Friday’s prelims, the third-fastest performance in UF history. The
Gators had a number of record-book worthy performances, including a top-three
finish for junior transfer Bridgette Owens (12.96w) in her 100mH Gator
debut, while UF men’s hurdler Eddie Lovett (13.45w) continued to impress
with second place in the 110mH. Sophomore javelin thrower Marija Vucenovic tossed
a collegiate leading 56.73m/186-1 Friday, a new PR and the third-best performance
in the Gators’ record book and both the Gators’ 4x1 and 4x4 women’s relays
additionally put up good marks the first go-around in 2014, as the women won
the 4x1 (43.60) and took second in the 4x4 (3:27.62), both of which lead the
SEC early in the season.

DON’T MISS OUT!

·Among
a number of Gator greats returning to celebrate the Florida Relays weekend, Omar
Craddock and Kerron Clement will both compete at the Florida Relays.
View all accepted
entries.

·Florida’s
2014 SEC Women’s Indoor Championship team and UF’s 2013 NCAA Outdoor
Championship team will both be honored Saturday afternoon!

·The
Gators will additionally bid farewell to the 2014 senior class at approximately
3:30 p.m., don’t miss out on congratulating these student-athletes on their
Florida careers!

The Florida Relays first began 75 years ago
in 1939, thanks to the vision and creativeness of the Gators' legendary head
track and field coach Percy Beard. Since that first meet, the Pepsi Florida
Relays have grown in epic proportions from the small regional competitions on
April Fools’ Day that featured 209 competitors, to one of the nation's premier
track and field meets.

Florida, Alabama, Georgia Tech, North
Carolina, Vanderbilt, the University of Havana and Palm Beach Junior College
composed the university division of the inaugural Florida Relays, while Daytona
Beach, Lake City, Live Oak, Miami Senior, Ocala, Palm Beach, Riverside Military
Academy, Jacksonville Lee and St. Petersburg competed in the nine-team high
school division.

The Florida Relays were established after the
Southern Relays, held at Georgia Tech, were discontinued in the 1930s. Coach
Beard was forced to create a new meet or travel hundreds of miles north to
Philadelphia for the Penn Relays. Beard's coaching peers throughout the
southeast were receptive to the idea and the Florida Relays were born.